A public meeting will be held at the Willows Methodist Church in Meerlust Street, Equestria this Wednesday to discuss littering and other problems in the area.
This after complaints about persistent littering and illegal dumping at Simon Vermooten Road.
The meeting is scheduled for 18:00.
“We strongly encourage residents to attend the meeting, because it will be an opportunity for the new mayor to interact with residents and hear their concerns,” said ward councillor Jacqui Uys.
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Uys said legal action will be be taken against litterbugs and people who dump rubbish illegally in the ward.
“There are three incidents at this stage with witnesses willing to testify in court cases which are being opened,” she said.
She asked for residents to please come forward if they have videos or photos of litterbugs.
“We want to open cases and fines issued,” said Uys.
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“These will help set an example and keep our area clean.”
“It is worrying that residents area themselves add to this problem. We have caught two offenders on video who live at estates in the area illegally dumping rubbish.”
“That said, a lot of pedestrians simply do not use the rubbish bins provided. This is a symptom of our society,” said Uys.
The litter got so bad that elderly residents of the Pretoria East Retirement Village recently decided to take matters into their own hands and clean up the road themselves.
ALSO READ: Illegal dumping a huge problem in Sunnyside
Thus they cleaned up the stretch of sidewalk from the corner of Farm Road/Simon Vermooten Road and corner of Rossouw Street/Simon Vermooten Road.
The cleanup was organised by Wallie Louw, a retired civil engineer and manager of the retirement village.
“Senior residents felt the road was beginning to look like a rubbish dump”, he said.
Within a few days, however, this stretch of road from The Grove Mall to the corner of Furrow and Simon Vermooten was littered again.
The retirees wanted to do something again, but their advanced age and cold weather prevented them from doing another clean up.
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